Classic Rock Radio
by coricidinForte
Summary: Your name is Karkat Vantas and the year is 1997.You're 20 years old and the only education you have is a high school diploma from a less than notable school in New York City. Now you're stuck working at a super store with an insufferable prick. Hiatus because I'm a terrible person.
1. Track One

The prickling feelings were a near constant, and even when the soothing effects of tobacco were administered there were always those spasms deep inside of him, Vantas wondered if they resided in his bone marrow. The typical combination of irritation and anxiety, with a dash of self-loathing and frustration to top it all off. It must be some sort of recessive gene, or that he was somehow cursed. A subconscious reminder to check his blood pressure hung in the air.

An AC/DC song came to an end and the radio host begun babbling on about something irrelevant before a commercial for a breakfast joint aired, Karkat put out his cigarette, throwing it down the sewer grate and the person to the right of him did the same. He bit his cheek from agitation, the smell of cheap marijuana still hung in the air. One could assume that he would be used to it by the point in his life, and one could assume wrong.

"You're going to have to use the employee showers to burn that stench off of your skin again," Karkat scolded the other man, standing from his spot on the curb. "your last boss wasn't another one of those temporal lobe removal survivors and you were damn lucky about it. Neither of us have the money to pay for bail, so unless you want to end up with your infected tattoo posse and play some more ass hockey you would stop pressing your goddamn luck here with Egbert when he's about on par with being as clever as you, and that's saying something."

His speech was lacking the usual luster, an effect from quieting his nicotine addiction. Though it wasn't like it mattered to his poor excuse for a best friend, who just laughed before doubling over to cough a few times. Karkat wanted nothing more than to rip that half-witted grin off the ridiculously tall man, he was so sick of covering up for him and cleaning up all the messes he left, both figuratively and literally.

"You need to motherfucking chill my hot-blooded brother," a hand patted him a few times and Karkat winced with the contact, this was just a poor act of comforting on his part. "can't have me motherfucking working all pent up, you know me."

Karkat snorted. "Yeah, too well."

Soon after the former New York resident was bringing boxes from the back to the numerous checkouts. He thought that living in the suburbs of Rhode Island would be a decent change from the city, but he proved to be as naive as every other young person wishing to get away from their hometown when he discovered that the suburbs weren't much better than hell, either. Next time he wanted to run away, he might as well find a nice cave in the middle of the country, but that would probably prove to be just as a tropical retreat as this was.

His eyes were squinting from the bright lights in the store, his headache just barely held off by the pills he ingested earlier. The thick glasses he wore were no help and with hours left until he could abscond to his terrible example of a livable apartment, he was guaranteed a throbbing headache; which wouldn't be made much better when he would almost certainly dream of saving up enough money to at least get himself into some community college so he can stop working jobs at super stores. But that was only if it came to be that he was actually alive and not stuck in some cruel form of purgatory.

"Karkat! Karkat, come here!" a deranged laughter followed the high pitched words, and he felt himself dreading having to approach the voice that called him. Nevertheless he found himself standing at the other side of the 'Glasses in an Hour' counter, looking at a small ginger lady with a Danish accent and obnoxiously red framed sunglasses.

He was a person that would make some type of kind of witty response, earning him shrill laughter from his blind ex-girlfriend, and words of false offense that would follow; but a blond man stood in his way. His path to insulting her with long-winded humor was officially blocked, and there was no way some stupid Pokeflute was getting this mother out of the way.

Instead he looked up at the stranger, another stupidly tall person, who might be just as pathetically lanky as Gamzee. That of course, was an exaggeration since he seemed built of lean muscle, but the stupid aviators and really well-groomed hair on top of his head brought him to a level of picking him apart mentally.

"This is Dave! Dave, this is the guy I was telling you about, the really angry one!" Terezi laughed, making some sort of spastic motion with her hands. "Karkat! Dave just started here yesterday, isn't he scrumptious? Come on, I know you can't not agree!"

How is she even working here again?

"Not so much, if you wanted to bring someone around to provoke this place into going full throttle Armageddon you could have had the integrity to find someone that wasn't the size of a fucking skyscraper." It was too early to deal with assholes, and with it being nearly three in the afternoon, it was never not too early to put up with these shenanigans.

Terezi just laughed, yammering on too quickly for the words to be comprehensible. The blond may have done something comical like raise an eyebrow, if his ridiculous fringe wasn't covering most of his forehead. Hell, the shorter man couldn't help but unwillingly imagine eccentric expressions on the guy, given that he seemed to have a solid poke face going on. Was he even a real person or did something of Gamzee's manage to get into his food?

Finally the newcomer decided to open his big mouth.

"Did you parents bleach you or is this some attempt to get on the cover of Glamour magazine on account of looking like an extraterrestrial?"

There was something he was told at least once a month since he was a kid, and that was to take deep breaths and walk away when he was angry instead of causing a scene by throwing a tantrum.

This wasn't going to be a day where he listened to said advice.

"Are you for fucking real right now? It's called having albinism you dick, it's nearly the twenty first century why haven't you caught up with the rest of our population on the 'How to be a Decent Fucking Human Being' pamphlet, or is your brain too damaged from alcohol poisoning to read anymore?" By now Terezi's laughter was brought to a level of sounding nearly cartoon-like, her hands pressed together as if she was watching her favorite sitcom. "Hey, here's a tip; why don't you take those glasses off, Corey Hart? Here you are acting like a goddamn Nazi party enthusiast, at least do us a favor and stop trying to pull of the cool and mysterious look, this ain't some late night flick!"

It was too late to return to a calm state of being, Karkat was too far gone into his rage. He went off the deep end and was never coming back. Not even a rescue crew of smartass dolphins could save him now. The cat was out of the bag, and his New York accent was let off the chain, spewing insults like a true resident of the Big Apple. The R's from the ends of words were left in the dust, O's came out sounding similar the the cooing someone may make in the presence of a cute animal and those Italian roots decided to reapply some color to themselves. Even this mysterious 'Cawy Hawrt' would agree that the best thing to do in the situation was to put him down, there was never a mad dog that could be cured, it was much too late.

"Karkat! What are you doing? You're going to scare off the customers again!" And just like that the bull fight was put on pause. "I see you met Dave, don't give him too much trouble, he's new around here." A man with tan skin came onto the scene, a blue vest was thrown over his polo shirt. He was no other than the infamous manager of Super-Mart, John Egbert, complete with crooked teeth and black framed glasses. The whole package, here in the flesh.

The fuming man turned towards the slightly, very slightly, taller man. He was visibly shaking now, but managed to bring his arm up to wipe the sweat from his brow.

"Karkat, you're supposed to be treating new employees like family, not tearing their limbs off!" Terezi happily scolded, reaching out a few times before she managed to poke him in the shoulder. "Have you been to one of your anger management circles recently? If you want I'll go with you again!"

Oh God no. Abort mission, it wasn't worth it, time to high tail it out of here, Karkat.

The albino flushed, his shoulders tense and his eyes quickly darting around at the company. He huffed, balling his hands into fists before stomping away not unlike the way a child would; leaving an amused girl, her new friend and a worried Egbert who shook his head at the boy from Huston. "I think you hurt his feelings, Dave."

The clock was nearing nine now and the resident crab was feeling antsy with the approach of the end of his shift. Just one more hour and he would be free to spend the rest of his night in front of a romcom. To be exact, Jerry Maguire sounded like a good choice right now. A dramatic tale about a successful sports agent who seems to have it all, which is all brought down by a question of purpose that leads to a struggle of discovery and love. With the talents of Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger, it was hard for him to resist.

His eyes found the sight of the pesky blond from earlier, scanning items and pressing buttons on the cash register. Karkat glared, wrinkles from his annoyance formed around his eyes and forehead.

"Look at him, he thinks he's so great, scanning shit and giving out change. What an insufferable prick, I hope he croaks on his breakfast so I don't have the misfortune of seeing his face again. Why does Terezi even grant him the time of day? He's about as engaging as a pile of feces."

"Who are you talking to?" Karkat stopped his mumbling, glancing over to the manager who was also his good friend. They were pen pals for some middle school project, and despite his insults, disregard of decency and manners they never stopped writing to each other even well into high school. John was one of the reasons why he decided moved to Charlestown in the first place, and another was how his childhood friend Gamze had room to spare, saving him from finding a stranger for a roommate.

"Clearly, I'm spilling my sorrows to these containers of low grade instant coffee," He emphasized by shaking on the the containers before putting it on the shelf. "they make great company when all of your co-workers are from fruity rumpus town."

His words were harsh, but no matter how much venom he put into them John never took any personal offense. He did however put his foot down when Karkat's sour opinions were directed to a special friend of his, specifically Vriska, who was his 'totally cool and righteous' girlfriend.

"Well you do have a thing for gaining friends from this fruity rumpus town." John chuckled at the face Karkat made, as if the reality of the situation was completely unbearable and desired to be forgotten. "Just give Dave a chance, he's not as bad as he seems! He's been my best bro for years! He's just nervous or something, it's his first time living here in the east, he doesn't know what he's doing."

Karkat rolled his eyes, as if that was an excuse to be a complete asswipe.

"Hey, it's not like you're any different! You're just as rude as that, even more so! So don't act like it's the end of the world it's only eight hours, you baby." John prodded at the other man's cheek, which earned him a semi-gentle slap on the hand.

"Now could you go get him some boxes? For some reason he's running low already." John commented, the oblivious curiosity clear in his voice. Karkat looked over to the man who insisted so stubbornly on wearing sunglasses inside the store. There was certainly a favor for his lane to the others, but given the appearances of their average employee it wasn't hard to figure out why. Wait, is that why Terezi was so drawn to him, his stupid expressionless face and well groomed hair? No wait that was stupid, she was blind, of course that wasn't the reason.

While mentally stabbing himself for getting all worked up over his ex-girlfriends new acquaintance, he obliged to John's request and went on his way to fetch more boxes for his fellow Super-Mart resident.

Karkat returned to the front of the store pushing a cart full of cardboard boxes that once held their shipped products. The store was trying to get attention by being resourceful and reusing what they already had under the guise of being Eco-friendly. Though the reality of the situation was that it saved them a good few figures of money, which went straight into the big man's pockets.

He begun placing the boxes at the end of Strider's station, refusing to even look at the other man while he completed his task. The sooner he got done with this and got out of the blond's assigned space the better. Dave finished up helping the customer at hand, who was looking nervous now that the scruffy ruffian known as Karkat Vantas had invaded the area. The man however was more curious about his presence, and spent time glancing at him as he helped the woman who seemed to have a fondness for hoarding cats. He didn't speak until she was on her way, leaving the two to engage in immature banter.

"Hey there sassy, what's eating you up?"

Something metaphorically snapped inside of Karkat, of course things couldn't be as simple as getting a job done and then moving on to his next task. There was always something, and there was no day off for the angry albino.

The young man with a head full of short, choppy, prematurity white hair looked up at Dave, his eyes looking up to the others. They would have made proper eye contact if it wasn't for those damn sunglasses.

"Considering how your attitude is reaching towards the Naomi Campbell level I would say that's self-explanatory." His spoken words, packed with pop culture references and laced with acid bounced right off his new found arch nemesis. Karkat threw a few more boxes into the crate, his feathers still ruffled from their earlier encounter.

"Look, I'm sorry alright." Dave paused, his brain attempting to come up with a decent apology. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

This only got him a sour look. "You didn't hurt my feelings! My feelings are left completely unhurt!" His body tensed and the task of unloading the boxes became increasingly violent. There wasn't a chance of hell that Karkat would admit to having his 'feelings hurt'. He wasn't some snot-nosed kid, he could handle himself on his own and wasn't about to get emotionally upset because of a Texan with a smart mouth.

Dave shrugged his shoulders in response. "Right. I should of known your delicate skin would burn so easily, my bad."

Karkat made a noise born from his frustration and anger. "Are you seriously still ripping on me for being albino? Jesus get some new material funny guy, no wonder why you're working here."

"Huh," If Dave was a normal person, than perhaps his face would portray the emotion of consideration. But he wasn't any kind of normal person, and regardless of any thoughts going on in his head his face reminded completely blank. "Then what's your excuse for working here?" Dave questioned with a tilt of the head. He leaned against the register, his lane now void of customers now that Karkat had joined him.

Karkat squinted his eyes at him, unsure as to how sarcastic and antagonistic the question was meant to be. He bit the edge of his mouth, lost as to how he should respond to his freaked co-worker.

"I'm just trying to pay the bills like everyone else; it's only a stupid job." He grumbled what was the most amiable few words he had said all day. He finished placing the last boxes he was sent to deliver into the crate, before leaving Dave's station with a certain awkwardness.

The Strider stood there, and in that moment he felt intrigued, silently deciding that maybe working here wouldn't be so bad after all.


	2. Track Two

Karkat spent most mornings in a living room of a house down the street from the apartment that Gamzee and he shared. The activities spent in the house were monochromatic on better days, but it beat being stuck in that small living space called his home with the stoner. Karkat seemed to hold a certain grudge against his roommate, but the truth was that he was just angry at the things that surrounded his friend which only clouded his emotions and judgment.

They became friends on account of both being children of single fathers, both which were not home very often and leaving them at day cares for most of the day. That didn't end their similarities, they both grew into having terrible anger problems, only Karkat expressed his with dealing out words and Gamzee threw out punches. Regardless they were always good for each other, keeping the other out of trouble and genuinely taking care of each other like they were family.

Things changed when Gamzee's father started sending him to child psychiatrists which in turn gave him subscriptions of different medications to keep his anger down and his focus up. Karkat was the largest protestor of this, it changed his friend too much and he didn't like it. Still Gamzee was happy with any attention his father would give him, so he didn't resist the change after some time.

Both of them started to grow apart by the time they entered High School when Gamzee started experimenting with abusing his medications and began smoking marijuana with a crowd that Karkat wasn't too found of. After awhile of trying to help his friend but not being successful he switched to spending most of his High School years struggling to pass classes and hanging out with his girlfriend Nepeta, or later Terezi.

Gamzee's neglectful father pissed Karkat off well enough, but Gamzee's destructive behavior and avoidance to taking his advice ticked him off even more.

There were shadows under his bloodshot eyes, making them seem even more otherworldly than usual. He was focused on watching a movie titled 'Pretty in Pink', ignoring the comments from a man born in The Philippines, but raised in Australia. On most days he would partake in a debate with his younger friend, who was stuck on ranting about Andie Walsh's choice on choosing Blane for a romantic partner instead of Duckie, however his mind was in different place at the moment.

The last couple of days at work was different, for lack of a better word. He spent most of the time by himself stocking the shelves and cleaning like always, but now in addition to this he spent time arguing with Dave Strider. Or rather, Dave making some sort of witty joke and Karkat spewing off steam by attacking the joke with claws and fangs bared. There was the other activity they partook in, such as Karkat trying to inform Dave of something and him making a mockery of it.

Most people observing would say the relationship they so far established was an unhealthy start, but the truth is Karkat hasn't felt this calm without the constant use of cigarettes in years. The energy their encounters required took a lot of thinking to outmatch the other, and this left him feeling tired instead of antsy from not using his mind enough to burn off energy. This was especially helpful since you wouldn't catch him dead in some gym and jogging was a big no due to his condition.

"Eridan!" The tanned boy next to him jumped, eagerly looking at the other Australian resident. "You've seen that flick a million times, come an' help me unpack these groceries please!" Her words were slurred with elongated vowels due to the accent, thought it was outmatched by Eridan's thicker one. He quickly scurried over to the athletically built Indian woman known as Feferi, complaining about something trivial as he exited outside to retrieve more plastic bags.

Eridan's spot was soon filled by another man who was a few years his senior. A man who actually sounded like he was born and raised in Rhode Island, which he was.

"Why aren't you helping?" Karkat asked, sending a scrutinizing look over to a Korean man named Sollux. The two of them met a few months after Karkat moved to Charlestown when Karkat started at his second job, despite getting on well enough they bickered half the time. Neither of them seemed to mind the fighting too much, as they both equally valued the friendship they formed.

"Eridan would just turn it into a competition and start a fight, the programming I'm dealing with is stressful enough so I'm going to avoid putting myself in that place. Really not in the mood for it." His words sounded monotone due to getting over a bad lisp he had for years, but even if they sounded empty of all emotion Karkat could tell that his friend was feeling burnt out.

He only shrugged, turning away so he could go back to watching the movie. It didn't take much to regain Karkat's undivided attention though, all Sollux had to do with open a beer can for those glaring red eyes to be set right back on him.

"Dude!" Karkat made a noise of disapproval, Sollux rolled his eyes. "It's one in the afternoon! Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

"Geez step off, drinking this early is hardly a crime anymore." He rolled his elbows back, letting himself sink into the couch. Karkat wouldn't have any of it, Sollux may be some 'upcoming mind of our generation' but he really made some stupid decisions and Karkat wasn't about to let him fall back into bad habits. He swiped the can out of his hands, ignoring the startled yelp from his friend when some of the liquid spilled on his clothes.

"Man, these were clean too." He groaned, lifting the wet fabric off of his chest before letting it fall back again. "I have an interview today, I can't go smelling like a drunk." He crossed his arms, glaring right back at his friend. "Dammit K.K, I'm so sick of your straight edge act you pull on everyone when you won't even put down the fucking cigarets."

"Are you stupid? You were going to drink before an interview?" Sollux looked like he was about to explain but was interrupted. "Don't answer that. You know I'm not going to let you end back where you have to go to Alcoholics Anonymous once a week, keep this up and you won't be getting a job in a long time. Hell, keep it up and you'll get kick out of university. I bet you're parents will be really happy about that, wouldn't they?"

Karkat was now standing by the window, emptying the contents of the can outside onto the lawn. Feferi made an upset squeak from the kitchen as she watched. Though she made no other indication that she was going to stop it. Besides, it was for the best, even if Karkat was going to poison her plants in the process of scolding the unstable techie.

"Oh, I had no idea you cared so much. Quick let me grab you a noble peace prize, or better yet ring up Mothers Against Drunk Driving, I'm sure they'll make you chairman." Sollux removed himself from the couch, stalking over to the basement stairs before removing his shirt and throwing down to be cleaned later. His skin wasn't that far off from being as pale as his albino friend's and his body was skinny with scars from an accident a couple of years ago. Karkat flinched at both the words and the harsh reminder.

"That was nearly two years ago Sollux. Everyone is okay now." Karkat knew it wouldn't make anything better when he spoke those words. He didn't get a reply and Sollux retired to his room upstairs, the wood creaking loudly under his feet. The house was silent for a moment before the sound of the shower broke it. Karkat slumped his shoulders, feeling defeated and guilty, as if he made things worse instead of better.

Feferi sent him a look of empathy, she had many similar rows with Sollux and wasn't able to receive much better results herself. Eridan scowled, looking irritated by the whole show. Unlike the other two, it seemed like he was the only one to get through to the guilt burdened bi-polar resident. Even if achieving that meant Feferi being forced to stay with Jade for a night while the two partook in physical violence that left them with many cuts and bruises; sometimes a visit from the police would follow.

Afterwards though everything would be as right as rain. Sollux would be making playful banter at Eridan who took Mario Kart too seriously and Feferi would laugh and giggle and join in with the silliness. The three might as well be skipping through a field of flowers half the time and be suiting up for war the other.

Karkat would never understand their relationship.

"I need to get to work, sorry for setting him off like that." He sighed, pulling out his care keys. The other two nodded, knowing that there wasn't anything they could have done to prevent it. With that their guest was out the door, turning the ignition of his dad's old 1988 Toyota Camry. The engined roared loudly, sounding exactly like the rusted piece of junk that it was. Karkat squeezed the steering wheel tightly, his level of stress was already high enough. He really wished he had the money to take a day off right about now.

Karkat ended up spending much of his shift cleaning up an isle reserved for sodas and other junk food on account of a couple of unsupervised kids experimenting the affects of coke and mentos a couple of times. This required everything, and he meant everything, to be scrubbed down. There was one good thing to come out of that though, he didn't have to spend time around other people and was left to think to himself. Some alone time was just what he needed, no one bothering him so he could silently get things in order. That usually back fired though, as he was always hard on himself, and he ended up feeling worse than before.

"You've cleaned that spot three times in a row now." Karkat's shoulders tensed and shot upwards, his spine straightened and his eyes widened. In other words, he almost quite literally jumped out of his skin.

He shot a dirty look at Dave who was free of his tacky employee vest, he was now stylishly dressed in a red hoodie and leather jacket. It was early fall sure but the temperature wasn't that cold, or at least it wasn't to residents of the north. Karkat made a note to tease him about that later.

"Don't sneak up on me like that." Karkat was scowling, he decided that the scowl wasn't just aimed at Dave but at everyone else on this planet as well. He glanced at the clock, it was a half past ten and everyone was either closing up or checking out. His shoulders relaxed and Karkat was back to his typical bad posture. He really wasn't in the mood to bicker with Dave right now, his headache was bad enough and all he wanted to do at this point was curl up in bed after taking a handful of painkillers.

"Why are you still here anyways? It's Wednesday." He stated, knowing that Dave had the next two days off and it was customary that workers hadn't need to help close up on their last work day. Karkat starting putting the cleaning supplies he was using on the giant, obnoxious, yellow cleaning cart. The blonde passed him one of the 'Caution: Wet Floor' signs he set up, and Karkat gave him a suspicious look before taking it.

"I lost a wager to that guy in the wheelchair. I bet him that he couldn't convince Terezi to act like a regular person towards the customers for five minutes and if he could I'd stay after for him." He paused for a moment, looking embarrassed. "I lost."

Karkat decided that staring at him was the best and only way to express how stupid he thought Dave was. "Tavros? He is the assistant manager, you knew that right?"

Dave threw his arms in the air, his lips pulling into a small frown. "I know that now!" His arms crossed. "Turns out they're good buddies too, I totally screwed myself over." Karkat wanted to laugh at him, but his face remained stone-like, his body feeling heavy. He probably wouldn't feel better until he saw Sollux bounce back emotionally, then he could go back to worrying about more simpler things.

So instead he only shook his head, pushing the cart towards the supply closet. Dave followed, but the two of them were silent as Karkat put away the equipment. When he closed the door behind him, Dave was still there. It was his turn to cross his arms, he knew there was something suspicious going on here.

"Okay, what do you want?" Dave didn't answer at first, and Karkat imagined that he was looking around behind those shades, maybe reevaluating his reasons for pestering him. He started mumbling something Karkat couldn't make out, and he frowned out of the irritation the whole situation was giving him.

"What? Can you repeat that?" He growled, his expression cross.

"I said; can you give me a ride?" Dave repeated, a bit louder. His shoulders were slumped, and from what Karkat could read with those sunglasses on his face, Dave appeared to be humiliated. Karkat had to admit, just that seemed to make his day a bit better.

"Why should I?" There wasn't any betraying his enjoyment, he was going to milk this for all it's worth.

"Because if you don't I'll have to wait like, an hour before the bus comes." Karkat titled his head slightly, as if he was deep in thought. "Hey! Come on, I live off of Holiday road, it's not even that far."

They stood like that for a moment before Karkat finally nodded, turning to walk towards the exit. "Alright, but don't think this is going to be a normal thing. " Dave responded, not with a thanks or a promise, but with an 'Steller'.


	3. Track Three

It became a regular thing.

It's been a whole two weeks and Karkat has been driving Dave home after work everyday. It shouldn't be something that made his life feel more stable, as the car ride usually was spent by them fighting over what to listen to on the radio or bickering about something nonsensical. His life as he knew it was a mixture of work, Sollux's unpredictable mood swings and Gamzee irritating the hell out of him; this was something nice and acted as a constant. Dave never disappeared for days on end, making him worry. Dave never had huge mood swings, causing Karkat to worry about his indulgence in alcohol. Dave didn't bring up the past like Terezi and didn't bother him by trying to talk about 'bettering oneself' like Egbert.

This was simple; there was no complicated back story, or trying to weasel one's ways into the others personal life. They joked around, Karkat got worked up and Dave teased him about it. They talked about things like music and popular culture, and they parted with no strained emotions. They were coworkers and pals, nothing more, and it was nice for the both of them.

It was nice for Karkat, who was more often than not stressed out about something and beating himself up over it. He needed something in his day to get him away from focusing on all the bad things that have accumulated over the years. Dave, who often felt abandoned, spent way too much time on being different and needed someone who didn't care about what he decided to do with his life. Basically, he needed someone who was just there and was never emotionally distant.

Them spending time together had become a normal thing, but things between them wouldn't be so simple forever.

"Welcome to my sweet bachelor pad, please keep both feet on the floor at all times." Despite him taking him home for the past two weeks, this was the first time Karkat has ever been inside of Dave's apartment, which was as crappy as he imagined it to be. It was smaller than the flat that Gamzee and himself shared, and about just as messy; though instead of pizza boxes, Faygo bottles and marijuana-related products littering the place, so the things that cluttered his home weren't exactly trash.

First thing he noticed was the electrical cords everywhere. Literally, everywhere. They twisted along and across the wood floors, finding their way into the electrical sockets and machinery like an ex girlfriend finds a way to intercept your mail. There were speakers in the corners, and an old, but new-looking DJ set up against the back wall accompanied by a large collection of records. His walls were covered in both posters and art alike, placed without any thought of design what so ever.

This was only the beginning of the clusterfuck that was Dave Strider's apartment.

"I'd hardly call this a 'sweet bachelor pad'. Any girl coming in here would walk right back out," he commented, staring at one of many jars scattered along various surfaces that held preserved dead animals. Ducking under a string that was held up from two opposite walls, he made his way through the room, careful not to touch the hanging photographs above. "Are those katanas?" he asked, looking at the swords neatly placed on a wall. He could imagine Dave enjoying a handful of strange hobbies, but he would have never guessed him to be one for novelty weapons.

"The best a hundred dollars could buy." Okay, maybe not novelty. Karkat took off his jacket, throwing it over the back of the couch. Now he was left in his gray flannel button-down and Def Leppard shirt, completing the grungy look with tattered jeans, and he sat down on a rather nice leather couch. This was probably fake leather, he took another look around the room, definitely fake leather. After Karkat didn't get one of Dave's so called 'brilliant' Austin Powers references, he ended up getting the albino to agree to watch the movie with him. He could only hope that this would be better than the time John made him go see Con Air with him. That kid was five kinds of crazy for that greasy actor, Nic Cage.

The spot next to him sunk as Dave took his seat, and the blonde passed him a can of Coke. Karkat was barely able to stop himself from rolling his eyes and opened the soda, giving the television a scrutinizing look as the movie started.

"Prepare to witness the best spy-related movie to grace this earth. If you feel yourself becoming sick, the bathroom is down the hall to the left, so please don't shit yourself."

Karkat scoffed, drinking nearly half the can as he waited for Dave to get the movie the play. "Please, this is about to be as exciting as watching Law and Order with Terezi." Most of the time he felt like she insisted on watching those rotten Law shows just to bother him, but she actually had a genuine adoration for them. "In fact, it will be so bad my digestive track will come to a complete halt. You're going to be the one to pay for my surgery when this is over,I swear. I can't believe-" His mouth was covered by the hand of his friend, who was looking at him, possibly in disapproval. There was no one of reading him, Dave still insisted on always wearing those dull sunglasses of his.

He switched the hand to a finger, keeping it over the glaring man's lips. "Shut up, time to have your mind blown."

As far as he was considered, his name was Dave Strider, and this was the first time he's woken up to the smell of sunscreen. He opened his eyes groggily after a moment, but everything in front of him was still dark regardless. To solve the problem, he removed the shades, letting them hang off the collar of his shirt.

Right, there was a reason as to why he woke up in the middle of the night. He looked over to the source of pressure on his side and was greeted by the sleeping face of Karkat Vantas. Dave sat still for a moment, noticing how bizarre it was to see such an angry guy look so relaxed. This was the one and only Karkat Vantas, shortest and more intimidating person on Earth, Hell-bent on tearing the world apart by his never-ending sass. Yet here he was, sleeping like he didn't have a care in the world. Dave could even say he looked downright cute, he could almost reach over and fluff his white hair.

He didn't though, instead opting for ungracefully getting off his ass, letting his newest friend fall down onto the cushion. He didn't wake, even though his legs hung off the couch's side and looked to be in a generally uncomfortable position. Feeling kind tonight, Dave lifted his legs and placed them on the couch, and left to retrieve a blanket. This was five miles beyond weird, people never stayed over at his place like this, and this was the first time he woke up near another person in years. Usually by the time he woke up whoever he slept with last night was long gone.

Which made things ever stranger, since this situation was purely nonsexual. You might as well plant some promise rings on them and name Dave virgin Mary for not tapping that ass. Waking up next to someone after not boning them? Blasphemy.

This incident of them falling asleep to a dumb spy parody wasn't planned, but oddly enough it wasn't uncomfortable. It didn't make him feel awkward, and he didn't have second thoughts of choosing what course of action he should take. Besides, if he did wake Karkat, he'd probably just throw a fit or something along that line of action. Gently, Dave put a blanket over the sleeping man before walking to his own room. There he was able to strip down to his boxers to sleep comfortably, and crawled into his bed.

If he was being honest with him self, underneath the calm demeanor he was nervous. Dave was never one to make friends that actually bothered with you outside of going out. Hell, the only friends he really had were Rose, John and Jade, which he known since he was a little brat. He didn't expect to hit it off with anyone, especially not at work. After talking with Terezi for a bit he thought that it would be the ginger girl that hailed from Denmark that would come over for movies, not some boy with a hundred different problems eating at him.

But they got on well, he was fun guy, always getting worked up over something. Perhaps it could be called endearing to some people, but to him it was just entertaining how he channeled all his anger and frustrations to the little things. Including himself, most people just kept everything remotely emotional hidden away until it blew up in their face. Though, it did seem like the anger that Karkat did steam off was only the tip of the ice burg as he always seemed so stressed out and tired regardless. Someone who is simply angry doesn't look like that.

More importantly, he didn't ask questions. Dave wasn't a guy to put his feelings on a parade, and he preferred to express them abstractly, not have a chat about them over coffee. That was a reason why the relationship he had with Rose was so rocky, since she always tried pulling that psyche 101 shit on him. Don't get him wrong, they were tighter than leather pants and he'd probably die for her if she needed it. But, he would still just step around all the emotional counseling bullshit by using some stupid joke and then avoid her for a short amount of time. He repeated this until the occurrences happened less and less. Even Jade wouldn't just let things be once they started dating. It took them a few months to be back on speaking terms after he cut it off.

This was nice, but he was lucky he had already [i]three[/i] friends who stuck by him for all these years. After-all, two people could only tease and tolerate each other for so long, right?

It was the morning after, and the only reason why Karkat woke up was because of a bomb going off in the next room. He shot up, hair disheveled, and his arms out in front of him ready for combat. The only noise that followed the explosion was a curse word and someone moving around in the room behind him. He turned his head from the side to side, noticing how barely any sunlight was able to make it's way into Dave's crummy apartment. Now that was nice. He spotted his glasses on the floor and put them on, the world around him suddenly becoming crystal clear. Well, it almost that clear, he needed to clean them after being on the floor like that.

After putting himself together he decided to check out the source of the noise by peering over the couch. Dave was busy in the kitchen, picking up shards of glass, which he assumed was from a broken plate. Alright, so there wasn't a bomb after all, that's good; but not knowing why he was still in Dave Strider's apartment was still a worrying him. All he remembered was watching that stupid spy movie that had Mike Myers' terrible face all over it. Next time he was picking the movie. He'd show that air-headed, lanky blonde a good film if it's the last thing he'll do.

"Good morning, Snow White." Karkat debated on throwing something at the prick he called a friend, but was deterred by the smell of delectable breakfast food. "Ha-ha. Don't quit your day job, funny guy." he said bitterly, watching curiously as Dave came towards the couch and passed him a plate that held a whipped creamed covered waffle. Karkat made a face and Dave laughed, already stuffing his face with the sugar-packed food. "Don't try to deny it, this food was made by the Gods."

Not wanting to hear anymore of his lame jokes, Karkat turned on the television and tested the food by poking it with his fork. "Did something embarrassing happen last night? Was there another bet that I forgot about?" he asked, making a jab at how Dave would always make the excuse of losing a bet the first few days of Karkat driving him home. He took a bite out of the breakfast bread, thrilled that it didn't taste like garbage.

Dave only shook his head, and Karkat wanted to punch him for still wearing those dumb aviators even in the morning. "This is literally all I had for food, I haven't shopped in awhile."

"You work in a supermarket."

Dave stopped eating and his head titled towards his plate, mocking a breakthrough revaluation. "It's a bad habit." Karkat snorted, he didn't doubt that, and the two of them ate the rest of their breakfast while watching particularly obnoxious morning cartoons.

* * *

Seriously, thank you for the feedback you guys are giving me. I really, really appreciate it. So, thanks. Sill on short chapters, but they should lengthen up as the story progresses.


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